Developing a car-sharing service concept for Uusimaa area
Podossinnikova, Irina (2020)
Podossinnikova, Irina
2020
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-202005046904
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-202005046904
Tiivistelmä
The thesis focused on developing a car-sharing service concept for the Uusimaa area, Finland, based on customer needs. The study was commissioned by Company X, an international corporation with offices located in Uusimaa.
The theoretical part focused on the relations between service and need, service concept elements and ended in a conceptual framework for building the proposal.
The current state analysis was carried out by analyzing customer needs, revealing main patterns in vehicle needs and relating them with the current market offers. The current state analysis revealed the gaps and opportunities in the current car-sharing concepts in Uusimaa. It was conducted based on qualitative research methods. Data was collected and analyzed in the current state analysis around two topics, the car-sharing concepts and true customer needs in vehicles. Massive data was gathered also from the customer interview based on questions related to the needs in rental cars.
The study revealed that the true customer needs lead to utilizing a vehicle in a unique way, but with common patterns. To satisfy that demand, car-sharing services have to be flexible enough. However, some challenges push the company to limit the service area such as the unbalanced car stock, further relocation, and possibilities to stock cars in dead areas. Currently, services are focused around city central areas. A free-floating model that basically provides flexibility and is focused around the service area in the city central part already has found low marketability in Finland and Sweden and led the wide-known company to close this type of service. On the contrary, the data from customer interviews revealed that as far as customers find the available routes inconvenient and complicated, their needs for cars become stronger and very definite, especially for outlying areas. Additionally, the study revealed the needs in car-sharing service may be bundled and thus have a synergistic effect, e.g. by rewarding a customer with the extended area and thus differ from others.
The proposal for the service concept was built around the opportunities that lay outside the current service area, utilizing a wide and non-standard approach. The study proposed that the service area is extended with a wider net of stations organized via a selected company partner, Kesko groceries stores, chosen as the partner to increase available parking locations and the marketability. The proposed solution tackles precisely the customer needs in car-sharing service, it shows the new logic of bundling additional services and encourages companies to modernize the existing service models.
The theoretical part focused on the relations between service and need, service concept elements and ended in a conceptual framework for building the proposal.
The current state analysis was carried out by analyzing customer needs, revealing main patterns in vehicle needs and relating them with the current market offers. The current state analysis revealed the gaps and opportunities in the current car-sharing concepts in Uusimaa. It was conducted based on qualitative research methods. Data was collected and analyzed in the current state analysis around two topics, the car-sharing concepts and true customer needs in vehicles. Massive data was gathered also from the customer interview based on questions related to the needs in rental cars.
The study revealed that the true customer needs lead to utilizing a vehicle in a unique way, but with common patterns. To satisfy that demand, car-sharing services have to be flexible enough. However, some challenges push the company to limit the service area such as the unbalanced car stock, further relocation, and possibilities to stock cars in dead areas. Currently, services are focused around city central areas. A free-floating model that basically provides flexibility and is focused around the service area in the city central part already has found low marketability in Finland and Sweden and led the wide-known company to close this type of service. On the contrary, the data from customer interviews revealed that as far as customers find the available routes inconvenient and complicated, their needs for cars become stronger and very definite, especially for outlying areas. Additionally, the study revealed the needs in car-sharing service may be bundled and thus have a synergistic effect, e.g. by rewarding a customer with the extended area and thus differ from others.
The proposal for the service concept was built around the opportunities that lay outside the current service area, utilizing a wide and non-standard approach. The study proposed that the service area is extended with a wider net of stations organized via a selected company partner, Kesko groceries stores, chosen as the partner to increase available parking locations and the marketability. The proposed solution tackles precisely the customer needs in car-sharing service, it shows the new logic of bundling additional services and encourages companies to modernize the existing service models.